Pork Cutlet vs. Grilled Pork Belly: Which Is the Ultimate Knight Restaurant Food?
Pork Cutlet vs. Grilled Pork Belly: Which Is the Ultimate Knight Restaurant Food?
"...So you're telling me you wagered your departmental budgets on which menu is superior, Donkatsu or Bulbaek?"
"Correct."
"Yes."
I scratched my head as I looked at Liana and Heimer shoving money at me.
Well, this was awkward.
Why awkward?
"We've each concluded that the other's chosen dish is superior."
"The overall vote ended in a 4-4 deadlock."
"And so, senior, we would like you to make the final choice."
They wanted me to settle a bet that put their own department budgets on the line.
"Boss, which dish do you personally find more delicious?"
"Please select the dish more befitting the chivalric spirit of a proper knight restaurant!"
"......."
Why was this suddenly my trial to bear?
And of all the possible dishes, they had to pick these two.
Choose between donkatsu and bulbaek?
That question was outrageously hard.
This was practically "who do you love more, Mom or Dad?" territory.
"Hm......."
After mulling it over briefly, I took the money from Heimer's hand.
"As expected, my defeat.... It galls me, but I must accept it."
Heimer gave a nod of acknowledgment and conceded the result at once.
"Still, donkatsu is unquestionably sufficient even without any other pairing—"
"No. Its flavor was achievable precisely because it is a dish made solely of meat. Compared to bulbaek, it is indeed lacking."
I took only the cost of the donkatsu — 48 silver — from Heimer, and handed the change back to him.
"Senior?"
Then I promptly took the cost of the bulbaek, 56 silver, from the money in Liana's hand.
"Uh, boss?"
I addressed the two of them as they stared at me, clearly thrown off.
"From where I stand, I can't tell you that one specific menu is better. Because both of you just admitted that your opponent's recommended dish tasted better than the menu you yourselves were championing."
Bulbaek. Western-style donkatsu.
Both were representative dishes — the kind that immediately spring to mind when someone says "knight restaurant."
There were other options: the dried pollack set meal, doenjang-jjigae, kimchi, sundubu-jjigae. But these two were the ones we were actually selling right now.
As far as ranking them went, both menus happened to be my personal favorites.
So I would only accept payment for the dish each of them had argued was delicious.
That was the conclusion I had arrived at.
"I understand your meaning. Just as you taught us through the bulgogi rice set, you are instructing us to pursue harmony not only on the battlefield but in daily life as well."
That... really wasn't it.
It felt like a massive overinterpretation, but I didn't bother to stop him.
"...Was that what it meant?"
Liana's eyes went round as she asked.
I gave her a wink and, behind Heimer's back, signaled that no, that was not it.
Whether she actually understood the gesture, I had no idea.
"One thing is clear. This was an unnecessary fight, wasn't it?"
"Something like that. In the end, as long as it tastes good, that's all that matters, isn't it?"
"That's true. I think that's right. What does the menu matter? As long as it tastes good, that's enough. We'll just each pay from our own budgets. Hohoho."
Listening to that exchange, Heimer muttered under his breath.
"In the end, a knight must prove himself through skill. Understood."
I really didn't think he understood it correctly.
That kid was genuinely obsessed with the knight's code.
Anyway, we had successfully served our first customers.
"I'll be coming often. I keep recommending this place to others, so it'll be bursting at the seams in no time!"
Liana shouted excitedly.
"When business is booming later, you're not going to kick us out, are you?"
"Don't worry. I don't mistreat the customers who wrote my first reviews."
After paying, Liana, on her way out, noticed the board hanging by the entrance.
"Huh? The Golden Wagon Merchant Group? Senior Manager? Boss, did Kobi from Golden Wagon come by here? Why? Why? Why?"
Her eyes sparkled the moment she discovered Kobi's review.
It was a review absolutely reeking of alcohol, but she clearly didn't care in the slightest.
If anything, a deep-seated respect for Kobi was welling up in her expression.
The Golden Wagon Merchant Group was one of the most renowned trading companies in the empire.
As I understood it, Kobi, alongside the head of the company, was a driving force behind making Golden Wagon what it was today.
Among imperials who handled money and pens for a living, there was probably no one who didn't know the name Kobi.
Still, was he really the kind of figure to provoke that kind of reaction?
To me, he was just a gnome with a severe drinking problem who was exhausting to deal with.
"I really respect that person! Just as he built the current Golden Wagon Merchant Group, someday I want to make this Viscountcy of Britten prosperous with my own hands!"
Make this rural territory prosperous, huh.
Liana was a woman with ambition.
"By the way, boss, what are these 'coco gizzards' and 'soju' written in the review? They're not on the menu. Are they the sort of items you only serve to important guests?"
"Ah, we don't sell those at lunch."
"Then?"
"They're on the dinner menu. Soju is a liquor, and the coco gizzards are a drinking snack."
At that, Liana's eyes lit up.
"Ah! You're planning to operate as a tavern in the evenings as well?"
I nodded.
"For now, I'm focusing on the meal menus. But if a customer comes looking, I'm always ready to serve them."
Liana's eyes glistened.
This wasn't the look of a woman who simply enjoyed food — a mere seeker of culinary pleasures.
I'd seen those eyes a few times before, in different places.
'Kobi used to get that look often.'
The eyes of a merchant calculating profit and loss.
"If you're curious, come by later. I'll show you the magic inside this green bottle."
When I took a green bottle of soju out of the refrigerator, her eyes gleamed once again.
"So this is soju. I'd heard that the Golden Wagon Merchant Group was preparing a new liquor product. I see, so this is it."
Liana stroked her chin as she spoke.
"That's right. It's the newly released liquor from the Golden Wagon Merchant Group — GW Soju."
"I knew it...."
Liana nodded, her eyes growing even brighter.
She looked at the Internal Affairs staff who had come with her.
"Everyone here is thinking the same thing I am, right?"
"Yes!"
They all wore a similar expression.
"Boss, we'll time our visit and come back later for the dinner menu, and we'll be bringing an important guest. Would that be all right?"
Judging by the look in her eyes, she was coming with a plan.
She couldn't possibly be thinking of bringing the viscount along, could she?
If the viscount came looking, I'd have to state it firmly — I have absolutely no intention of becoming anyone's personal chef.
But if he came as a paying customer?
He'd be welcome anytime.
"Of course. I'll look forward to it."
"Understood. I'm excited! What will it taste like? Fufu."
Meanwhile, Heimer shook his head.
"Alcohol is the worst possible sustenance for a knight. I shall decline. However, this 'coco gizzard' does pique my interest."
No sooner had Heimer finished speaking than the other knights raised their hands.
"We'll come back and try the new menu for sure!"
The sight of those burly men throwing their hands up in a clamor was so fierce that a stranger might have been intimidated.
As glad as I was that they liked my food, it was also... a lot.
"Anytime."
***
Michelle swam through the water, her beautiful blue tail propelling her back toward the Dragon Palace.
-Princess!
-It is Princess Michelle!
-How can she be so beautiful....
The voices of the fish reached her ears.
Countless creatures swimming through the sea.
Up until just yesterday, she would have called them her friends.
Now she couldn't bring herself to look them in the eye.
'Sebastian....'
Because of the sin she had committed.
She had committed the sin of eating a friend.
Perhaps it was a sin she'd been committing for a very long time without knowing it.
A sin committed out of ignorance was still a sin; it did not simply vanish.
The guards stationed in front of the Dragon Palace — octopus sentries wielding spears with their eight tentacled limbs upon walkways — greeted her.
-Princess, you have returned? Huh? And where is Sebastian?
At the octopus guard's question, Michelle shut her mouth tight.
Sebastian.
The flatfish who had been born with the fate of becoming a noble.
The finest elite soldier who had served the royal family in the Dragon Palace for centuries.
In the parlance of the continent-dwellers: a knight among knights.
Sebastian, the flatfish braver than any other, was a figure of reverence to those who lived in the Dragon Palace.
"Th-that is...."
She could not bring herself to say that Sebastian had died at the hands of a human.
Nor could the words that she herself had eaten him leave her mouth.
Just then.
-Ah, Princess! You're here!
Another flatfish glided across the seabed toward Michelle.
Hearing the gentle voice of the female flatfish, Michelle found herself staring at her before she could stop herself.
And the instant she looked at the flatfish.
A sharp sizzle!
Her voice sounded exactly like that of the fried olive flounder hissing in oil.
Just the sound alone was mouthwatering — a delicious sound.
For Michelle, who had tasted